Hodgson, the man-of-the-match as Warrington lifted the trophy for the third time in four seasons last year, also kicked 11 goals for a personal haul of 26 points.

Wolves coach Tony Smith selected 11 of the side that had beaten the Rhinos at Wembley in August and he was rewarded with a ruthless display from his team, who took advantage of a tiring Cougars outfit in the second half to register a comprehensive win.

Atkins (twice), Chris Riley, Waterhouse and Williams all went over to give Warrington a 26-0 lead at the break, Riley's 70-metre dash the pick of their first-half scores.

And the domination continued with the visitors adding six more tries in the first 12 minutes of the second half, replacement Michael Monaghan having a huge impact from the bench.

During a rare attack, Keighley full-back White collected Paul March's pass to touch down for the home side's only score, but Warrington continued to pressure and their day was rounded off when teenage prop Glenn Riley powered over for a try on his senior debut late on.

VIEWS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM

Keighley Cougars player-coach Paul Marsh:

"I hope we get someone else next year [having been knocked out of the competition by Warrington in three consecutive seasons]. You always want to play against the best and they certainly brought their best team.

"We'll take a lot out of today. We've played against some of the best players in the world. We battled away for 80 minutes, even though the scoreline suggests we didn't.

"We created a lot of opportunities against a Super League side.

"We came into this game with four wins out of four and full of confidence and it's up to us now to make that sure that confidence hasn't been knocked out of us."

Warrington Wolves head coach Tony Smith:

"We came here with a strong team - we only had two debutants - because we needed to get on top of some aspects of our game. We needed a good hit-out.

"The first half probably took its toll on our opponents. The floodgates opened for a little while but they didn't throw the towel in by any means. They kept fighting and scored a try and almost got another at the end.

"All credit to Keighley. That's our third year in a row with them and they're getting sick of us. But they showed a lot of fortitude."